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Trustees approve suspensions and eliminations of several low‑enrollment academic programs
Summary
Following faculty and administrative review, the board approved suspensions or eliminations of multiple programs at Fort Kent, Augusta, Farmington and USM, and said no faculty retrenchments were required in listed cases.
At its July 14 meeting the board approved recommendations from presidents and the provost to eliminate or suspend a set of academic programs judged to have prolonged low enrollment or to be duplicative within the system.
Key program actions approved: - University of Maine at Fort Kent: elimination of BS in Cybersecurity (online and campus), BA in English, AS in Information Security, and elimination of the Associate of Arts in General Studies (previously suspended). The board also approved suspension of the BA in French at UMFK; presidents said the Acadian archives and general‑education French courses remain in place. - University of Maine at Augusta: suspension of the BA in Liberal Studies; UMA will consolidate degree completion pathways under Interdisciplinary Studies with no faculty layoffs. - University of Southern Maine: elimination of the BA in Natural and Applied Sciences and the BS in Applied Technical Leadership; administrators said there were no enrolled students in those programs.
Administrators emphasized these were “housekeeping” steps after processes of faculty review and that program suspensions carry no immediate faculty retrenchment in the items discussed. Presidents indicated the measures were meant to avoid advertising programs that are not viable and to focus resources on active, in‑demand offerings. Trustees asked that community and program impacts be tracked and reported during normal program‑review cycles.
Board actions: Each program motion was brought forward by the Academic and Student Affairs committee and approved by roll‑call vote; the clerk recorded each vote as carried.
